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Code of silence

Sadly, the title does not refer to the 1985 film starring Chuck Norris, or (hopefully :-) ) not even omertà, the Mafia code of silence….

Q. When is “yesterday’s news” (or 2-year-old news) still news?

A. When nobody has talked about it in public…. (sorry, no joke this time….)

CNET’s Elinor Mills describes cyberattacks upon three U.S. oil companies in 2008 that were reported by the Christian Science Monitor yesterday. The Monitor article is extensive and covers five Web pages. The three companies – Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips – reportedly did not realize the full extent of the attacks until they were alerted by the FBI in 2008 and early 2009. Senior level executives reportedly received emails that contained embedded links that downloaded spyware to computers when clicked. Information that was targeted was reported to include “bid data” on the quantity, value, and location of oil discoveries around the world.

The Christian Science Monitor quotes a “source familiar with the attacks:”

“What these guys [corporate officials] don’t realize, because nobody tells them, is that a major foreign intelligence agency has taken control of major portions of their network,” says the source familiar with the attacks. “You can’t get rid of this attacker very easily. It doesn’t work like a normal virus. We’ve never seen anything this clever, this tenacious.”

Targeted attacks may be yet another reason for not promoting the “technologically naive” (“stupid” is too strong a term! :-) ) to executive management (regardless of whether their personality type “fits in”). :-)

None of the three oil companies would comment upon the attacks or even confirm that they had happened. :-) The attacks were confirmed by the Monitor during a five-month investigation in which interviews with dozens of oil industry insiders, cybersecurity experts, and former government officials were conducted. Documents that described the attacks were also examined.

From the Monitor:

“We’ve seen real, targeted attacks on our C-level [most senior] executives,” says one oil company official, who, like others familiar with various aspects of the attacks, spoke only on condition of anonymity. “I was at a meeting with the FBI earlier this year [2009] that was pretty eye-opening.”

The attacks on the oil companies reportedly involved custom-made spyware that is virtually undetectable by antivirus and other electronic defenses traditionally employed by corporations.

“I can confirm for you that this type of advanced attack is happening to companies across the US today,” says Daniel Geer, chief information security officer for In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The attacks on the three oil companies appear to be similar to the types of attacks launched against Google, Adobe, and 32 other Silicon Valley companies that have declined to identify themselves.

-Bill at

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